Hide

Hide, in early English history, the land necessary to support a free peasant family. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the hide commonly appeared as 120 acres (50 hectares) of arable land, but it probably represented a much smaller holding before 1066. It was the basis of the earliest taxation and the basis for mustering the primitive English militia, the fyrd. By the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, it had become unusual for a single peasant to hold an entire hide, most being restricted to a quarter hide, or yardland. Long after the Norman Conquest (1066), however, the hide was the unit according to which assessment for national taxation was expressed.